August 15, 2011

Hola,


Well.....I'm getting transferred, but I'm staying in the zone. I will be going to the Rio Grande Ward. It's just back over the mountain. These last three areas have all been bordering each other. I'm going to be with Elder Perez. He is a cool kid. He comes from LA and is built kinda like a bowling ball. I'm really excited to go over there and serve with him. I've got three transfers left so this could be my last area. Elder Salazar is going to be training a new missionary, so that's exciting.

We had a baptism on Saturday. Ben got baptized and it was an awesome baptism. The ward did everything. Ben's non-member parents and step-dad came to the baptism and then also came to his confirmation on Sunday, so that was really cool.

I was able to say some goodbye's to members and investigators. I've decided I'm going to miss this area. Last night we had dinner with the Bishop and his family and they made me my favorite meal: chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter, nutella and syrup! it was amazing. The Bishop also gave both me and Elder Salazar each a priesthood blessing for our new transfer. That was really awesome.

Love,


Elder Wiest

August 8, 2011

Hola,

I'm not exactly sure what we did this week. It's all kind of a blur. I know we did missionary work!

One of our investigators taught us how to make discada, just tacos. They were great. I do love Mexican food.

We gave a blessing to a member in the hospital. She was looooopy. And we got lost in the hospital. I think someone was getting killed in the elevator because we could hear them screaming bloody murder in there. Weird.

One of our investigators who we've been working with for a long time finally came to church yesterday! It was great. She's been coming to all kinds of activities but never came on Sunday until yesterday.

We love teaching English classes! They're so much fun! We talked about introducing your family. We had a bunch of non-members come again. Now were just trying to get members to come and mingle.

One of our other investigators had his baptismal interview yesterday and passed and is good to go!

Love,


Elder Wiest

August 1, 2011

Hola,

We just got done at the zoo. I've been in El Paso for a year and a half and for a year and a half I've been wanting to go to the zoo and today I finally got to go! It's nothing like the Portland zoo but we had a good time.

This last week we went on exchanges with the other Elders in our district. Elder Hull came to our area and I worked here with him. We got some good stuff done and helped a guy move. We got a call from a young couple who lives in the same apartments as the guy we were moving. They needed help with a blessing. They had just got sealed and he just recently received the Melchizedek priesthood. We got there and she was basically going into labor with their first kid. It was cool because we coached him through his first blessing and it was powerful.

We had a park night with the Bishop's kids while they were on a date.

Our investigator, Nancy, taught us how to make gorditas! Soooo good! (and so frustrating). But well worth it.

We started English classes this week on Wednesday and Friday nights at 6:30pm. On Wednesday we just had our one investigator, Nancy, but then on Friday she brought a bunch of her friends and we had like 6 people and they were all non-members! It was so cool. It's a little nerve racking but I'm excited to see were this all goes.

This last Sunday we spoke in Sacrament meeting. Our topics were missionary work and I talked about the spirit and qualifying for the spirit and how it will help you overcome fears of sharing the gospel. It went pretty good.

Love,


Elder Wiest

July 25, 2011

Hola,

This week we had zone training and interviews with President Miller. It all went well. In the training, we talked about recognizing and qualifying for the spirit and teaching simply. We had some little kids from a few of the wards come to our meeting. Each companionship got assigned a kid and a topic to teach. Elder Salazar and I got the oldest kid and had to teach him the law of chastity! Lucky thing was when they asked him afterward what he learned he made us look good. Maybe we bribed him?

We've been working hard on visiting members in their home. We're doing it for a few reasons: 1) The ward lists in both wards are horrible so we are helping to clean them up, 2) If it's an active family we can get to know them and ask for referrals, 3) If it's a less-active or part-member family we can work with them and teach them, 4) If it's a non-member family we can teach them, too. So, we've been doing a lot of that lately and it's been working pretty good. The members actually know who we are now.

On Saturday we went with our English WML and helped him visit one of his home teaching sisters. She mainly speaks Spanish but still attends the English ward so he took us to translate and help him out. We got pizza out of it! We also visited a family out in the boonies (Chaparral). They have a horse and I think I fell in love.

Some Elders gave us their weights so we are working on getting buff.

On Sunday at church we taught Gospel Principles in the Spanish branch. We again had about 10 minutes notice but we made it work pretty good. It was on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Next week we are speaking in the English ward's sacrament meeting. There will be four speakers so I will only have to talk for about five minutes this time, thank goodness.

Last night we visited one of our investigators. She is having some troubles. She needed to get rid of the family kitten. Her plan was to put a collar on it and leave it at the park. My companion had some quick thinking. Long story short...we took the cat, had it for a few hours, and then gave it to our cat loving recent convert named April. We blessed two lives with one kitty!

Love,


Elder Wiest

July 18, 2011

Hola,

Some weeks go by fast and some go by slow. This was one of the slow ones. We got lots of work done and are seeing some really good things happen in the area, but it just seemed like a long week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Elder Salazar had to go to leadership training so I was companions with Elder Richardson for those two days. He just came out from the MTC this transfer so he is fresh and has that greenie fire! He is a cool kid and a really good teacher. We had some good experiences finding people and getting sweaty.

We've been trying to use the members more whether it be teaching in their homes, visiting them, or taking them knocking. We've seen a lot of good things coming from that.

On Sunday, my companion went with the Spanish ward council to go visit people while I stayed and went to the English ward. I experienced something new...I went to Relief Society. WEIRD! The lesson was on missionary work and the teacher wanted us to come. How convenient that Elder Salazar went to do visits. I don't think I want to go in there again.

Love,


Elder Wiest

July 11, 2011

Hola,

I don't have much news to report for this week. On Friday, we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Sometimes I love exchanges, most times I don't.

We have a great investigator right now, Lorenzo. He is the father of a member in the branch. He is old but is mentally all there, which is unusual for Mexicans. He's doing really good. We've also started teaching a cool part member family and we just keep focusing on finding.

We went to Denny's.

On Saturday morning, we got a call from one of the counselors in the branch presidency asking us if we could speak in sacrament meeting the following day in Spanish. We accepted. The topic was Jesus Christ, which is a little broad. I talked about developing Christ-like attributes. We did our best to prepare Saturday night and during the English ward on Sunday morning. I think it went good. I was the first speaker and spoke for about 15 minutes. We were pretty nervous. My companion was so nervous he almost took the sacrament before the branch president. I pulled his hand away just in time! My companion did great as well on his talk and between the two of us we filled the time.

Love,


Elder Wiest

July 5, 2011

Hola,

Today is transfer day. I'm staying and so is my companion. Life is good. We've had a lot going on this past week.

Yesterday for the 4th and P-day we hung out with the bishop and his family all day. We did laundry, played Catch Phrase, Rummikub, Phase Ten, went to Albertson's, made food, ate food, made/ate smores and taught Ben who is one of the daughters' boyfriend. It was a good day.

On Sunday we had a baptism. Raul got baptized and so did his cousin, Patty. The baptism was after Church and it was packed. We held it in the Relief Society room and there was standing room only.

We got a lot of members out with us last week, which was really cool. We took them to visit people and knocked on doors in 105 degree weather. We had some "cool" experiences and found some good people. On Sunday we got lots more members signed up to go out with us and do the work.

Earlier last week our investigator, Mike, was moving his water bed from one room to another. We got there just in time. He had about 1/4 of it emptied and had just got a hole in it. He had been emptying it bucket by bucket. We got a hose hooked up and I started sucking and 1-1/2 hours later we had it emptied. I got water in my mouth from an old, nasty water bed that had just gone through an old, nasty hose.

Love,


Elder Wiest